Data security for fintech firm

10th January 2017

Fintech company FISCAL Technologies provides forensics for purchase-to-pay (P2P) and creates software that prevents money from mistakenly or fraudulently leaving a user’s IT. Some FISCAL customers require contractual certainty that their data does not come into contact with any organisation that has any kind of relationship with the US or American organisations due to data sovereignty. FISCAL had kept US and UK customers’ data stored in the same data centre in the UK, but then needed to split the data because of this segregation requirement. Whilst FISCAL partnered with a company in the US for their American customers, they found that their previous UK provider, who had been in place for three years, did not have the measures in place to guarantee adherence to their client’s data sovereignty requirements. FISCAL needed a hosting and infrastructure provider in particular with the ISO 27001 information security management standard.

FISCAL embarked on a procurement process – and found that The Bunker covered all the necessary accreditations, including ISO 27001. With experience working in the fintech sector, The Bunker fitted the bill. The Bunker’s solution was a virtual environment, with SQL Server databases, load balanced firewalls, and active directory domain controllers. This system delivers not only a robust approach to data and system security, the outsourced IT firm says, but also the performance and seamless management that FISCAL requires to deal with the sheer volume of data and amount of processing that it manages for its customers. Demonstrating security compliance has provided new business says FISCAL.

Howard Durdle, CTO at FISCAL, said: “Being in financial services, security is absolutely paramount, and for many of our customers, having the level of security provided by The Bunker was a prerequisite to making deals. For example, for a large defence contractor who placed huge value on security and on their data not touching the US, The Bunker were a vital element to passing a lengthy procurement process and securing a deal. Hosting our customers’ data in a former Ministry of Defence bunker, deep underground and fully insulated from the outside world, gives us a powerful story to tell potential and current customers about the importance we place on security.”

As for running a fully virtualised estate, Howard said: “In the case of any kind of system failures, we can migrate virtually across to other parts of the infrastructure, massively reducing any potential for downtime – not that it’s been an issue as of yet.

“It’s hugely important to our clients to have certain security guarantees in place. The Bunker is distinct for a security culture that is deeply embedded in its DNA, and for having a more comprehensive security provision than anyone else we spoke to. We have mutually complementary narratives: FISCAL is absolutely focused on protecting organisations’ money, whilst The Bunker has the same obsession with protecting organisations’ data. This cultural overlap has made for a productive partnership. FISCAL is still in the process of moving their customers off the old platform, but is looking to expand the virtual infrastructure and to double its customer load over the next year whilst maintaining current performance levels.”